CONSTRAINING THE VELA PULSAR'S RADIO EMISSION REGION USING NYQUIST-LIMITED SCINTILLATION STATISTICS

Journal Article · Wed Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/8· OSTI ID:22092134

Johnson, M. D.; Gwinn, C. R. ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)

Using a novel technique, we achieve {approx}100 picoarcsec resolution and set an upper bound of less than 4 km for the characteristic size of the Vela pulsar's emission region. Specifically, we analyze flux-density statistics of the Vela pulsar at 760 MHz. Because the pulsar exhibits strong diffractive scintillation, these statistics convey information about the spatial extent of the radio emission region. We measure both a characteristic size of the emission region and the emission sizes for individual pulses. Our results imply that the radio emission altitude for the Vela pulsar at this frequency is less than 340 km.

• OSTI ID: 22092134
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 758, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
DATA ANALYSIS
FLUX DENSITY
MHZ RANGE
PULSARS
PULSES
RADIOASTRONOMY
RESOLUTION
SCATTERING
SCINTILLATIONS
STATISTICS